Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
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    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art
Picture


Douglas Luman

Language Primer Over Goat, Ho Chi Minh City

            For Ben
I.

We ate the whole goat. Tongue,
nipples, lips. Drank something
like basil juice (even the Frenchman,
rolling up all the day’s time
could not fold his mouth to describe it).

Inside every three or four, a fire. Liquor
made brains squat over the flame,
aphrodisiac for mushrooms, starfruit.
Potatoes bustled. A fig beer
chattered through lotus leaves.

II.

Gamey. Ocher smoke. Earthy tang.
Monotone chiffon, equidistant

from tin cans. Marrow in the bone.
Lamb crossing the room in black stockings.

III.

I become noise, faint
memory of when I knew words; now,
only tones and vowels.

            a as in thān
            stuttering â as in uhh
            ư is a lazy tilde (don’t move mouth, smiling)
            i is ē
            u – like ooo (teeth together,
            lips apart).

The Frenchman hears my eyes;
he is smiling.





Picture
Douglas Luman is the Book Reviews Editor at the Found Poetry Review. His work has appeared in publications such as UCity Review, Burningword and The SquawkBack.

published by
The Department of English
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright © 2012-2022 Map Literary
Map Literary

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  • About
    • Masthead
    • Submissions
    • Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award
    • NJ High School Writing Contest
    • In Print
    • Subscribe
    • Links
    • Internship Opportunity
    • WPU MFA
  • Poetry
    • Richard Ryal
    • Sherwood Anderson
    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
    • Jim Daniels Poetry
    • Michael Chang
    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
    • David Dodd Lee
    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
    • Leonard Kress
    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
    • Scott Minar
    • Greg Glazner
    • Bruce McRae
    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art